Alshon Jeffery is on deck for a big deal

Posted by Mike Florio on May 19, 2014, 11:28 PM EDT

AP

As usual, the true value of Bears receiver Brandon Marshall’s new contract won’t be known until the official details can be scrutinized. The four-year, $40 million deal reportedly has $23 million guaranteed; without knowing how much is guaranteed at signing, there’s no way of knowing what kind of actual financial security Marshall received.

Among the most interested in knowing the true value of the deal will be Bears receiver Alshon Jeffery. The 24-year-old exploded in his second NFL season for 1,421 receiving yards on 89 catches. Marshall had more catches (100 total) but fewer yards (1,295 in all), but some think Jeffery soon will be the better player, if he isn’t already.

So if Marshall is worth $10 million per year, what will Jeffery get? He’s eligible for a new contract after the 2014 regular season, and he’ll be a free agent after 2015. The Bears will need to pay Jeffery as much or more than Marshall, sooner rather than later.

And if they decide that they can’t afford both, the actual guarantee in Marshall’s deal becomes even more relevant, because that will help the Bears figure out when they could move on from Marshall.

Sorry Calvin Johnson, you’re the best in the biz, but I would take Alshon and Brandon together any day of the week. If you had A.J Green or Antonio Brown or even Julio Jones, that would be a great game to watch vs. the Bears….

bassplucker says:May 19, 2014 11:34 PM

The Bears have had some nice 2nd round picks in their recent history. Mike Brown, Devin Hester, Matt Forte… this kid could wind up being better than any of them.

This is why the Brandon Marshall extension kinda confuses me… I don’t pretend to understand the Bears cap situation but if I had a choice between a tried-and-true but aging Marshall or a young rising high-ceiling star in Jeffery, I’d take Jeffery every time.

Couldn’t disagree more. Marshall – at this time – is a far superior receiver than Alshon. I’d argue that Alshon is a beneficiary to playing with Marshall, and I don’t think many DCs would disagree with me, hence their game plans. The Bears hold all the cards here controlling him for two more years, much the same way the Bengals hold AJ Green and the Falcons Julio Jones. Could this all change in two years? You betchya. And we know how Father Time works in the NFL. Smart play signing Marshall while controlling the rights to Alshon. Two years – and possibly a franchise tag later – and they’ll be sitting pretty. No rush at all to pay a player like Alshon, especially after only one season.

I think they are prepared to keep both. Bears have $12.6m in dead money this year from cutting Peppers, Bush, Podlesh, and Carimi. So even if the cap doesn’t go up, they have $12M to sign Jeffrey to an extension after this season. Given the new TV money coming in from the Thurs night package, and potentially the windfall for Sunday Ticket, the cap will probably jump more than it did this year, so I think they have it covered. Not to mention Cutler’s cap hits decrease over the next several years to a more manageable level.

Can we get about 65 people cloaking they will be in cap hell . Every single team allocates money differently . The bears will lose some players but keep their core . Same as my Seahawks , Jeffery deserves a payday and with him and Marshall and Wilson in that offense for the foreseeable future they might have the best all around WR corps in football .

metalhead65 says:May 20, 2014 8:16 AM

they will find room for both of them. there is no way they move on from marshall because Jeffery has had one great season. even if he continues to be a beast they will find a way to keep both of them around for a little while longer. after years of offense being a foreign term around Chicago they are not going to rid of the main ingredients for awhile.

The Bears will find a way to keep both Marshall and Jeffery around. Those non-Bears fans saying otherwise are jealously indulging in some wishful thinking.

bassplucker says:May 20, 2014 10:14 AM

They will find the money, and here’s why.

1) Emery has shown he will re-sign in-house stars sooner than later if they are willing to take a fair (not over-the-top) deal.

2) Emery does not overpay for depth and does not do long-term deals with guys who aren’t (or don’t figure to be) starters; quite a few of the veteran backups currently on the Bears are playing on 1- or 2-year deals at or near the minimum salary.

3) Emery is more than willing to ask for pay cuts from veterans who signed inflated deals in the last regime and have not played up to them or have lost their starting spots to younger guys… and he is willing to let guys walk who won’t renegotiate.

This is all just roster and cap management 101 but because the Bears have been so bad at it for so long, it’s hard to get used to.

I don’t think people understand the salary cap. Just becase Marshal has a contract thats about 40M doesn’t mean thats his cap hit is 10M every year. The Bears probably front loaded his contract so in years 3 and 4 his cap hit is low and gives them room to sign Jeffrey to nice contract. Smart GMs know how to work contracts so when they have other contracts coming up players with big deals aren’t as high of a hit on the cap. Cutlers contract is structured that way. The salary cap will also keep going up as the NFL keeps making money. Your not gonna see the salary cap get lower. So that will give them even more money to play with. Marshall will retire a bear. Jefferey will stay a bear. If you have no knowledge of how the salary cap works stop making comments about how they will have to cut this guy and that guy.

I remember a lot of teams passing on Jeffrey because of concerns about his work ethic. Glad to see he’s proven those teams wrong and become one of the premier young wide receivers in the game. Kudos to Emery for trading up to #45 in order to draft Alshon! In Emery we trust!

Thanks for that comment about them supposedly being the best WR tandem, I needed a good laugh. Bears have the 3rd best WR corps in the division, and it’s not even close anymore now that Calvin Johnson has some help and GB got Adams.

Check last year’s stats and then hit yourself in the head to smarten up. Everyone on NFL Network was raving about Jeffery and Marshall being the best tandem in the NFL. Bears were also the 2nd best scoring offense in the entire league. Nice try with your pathetic assumption though.

bassplucker says:May 21, 2014 9:22 AM

What’s interesting is that a lot of the same things that caused Jeffery to fall to the 2nd, caused Will Sutton to fall to the Bears in the 3rd this year. Conditioning questions, significant dropoff in production from the year prior, etc.

If the Bears can get the same type of ROI on Sutton that they’ve gotten on Alshon, look out.

themagicfanguy….and of course you know that Adams will be a good NFL player, right? Nobody knows who will pan out and who’ll be a bust so saying that GB getting Adams will help is pure speculation. Johnson and Tate as a tandem aren’t better than Marshall and Alshon.

themagicfanguy….and of course you know that Adams will be a good NFL player, right? Nobody knows who will pan out and who’ll be a bust so saying that GB getting Adams will help is pure speculation. Johnson and Tate as a tandem aren’t better than Marshall and Alshon….

Jeffrey is guaranteed to be a Bear for 4 more years with the use of the franchise tag if necessary and deemed prudent. Doubtful though as he will get an extension in 2015 once he proves his long term value and upside.

I’m on record with you Peckerheads that Abberderris will be s better (think Wes Weller type) pro than Adams because of his work ethic and football IQ. So those of you saying GB has a better WR tandem are clearly just homers and show you really know nothing about football! #cheeseheadstupidity